Junior School cricket coaching.

As we have mentioned before I do cricket coaching at two junior schools and have been struggling to keep the children motivated but thanks to some of your replies and advice things have been going really well, also as I have mentioned we live in a very football orientated area, what I would like to know off members is it the old school tie regime around certain areas of England or has the new iniative of kidz play cricket (Kevin Pietersen) managed to change all of this. Kwik cricket I feel has been the best thing in twenty years to introduce young children to play cricket but is this the case in well to do areas. Many thanks to your future replies they are all greatly appreciated.

P.S
Have you noticed my son (andmark) has cut down on his new threads, he is in cold turkey lol

I coach a lot of junior cricket (all be it in a different country) and find that I draw energy from the boys rather than struggle to motivate them. Its all about their interest rather than any skill I have. I cant imagine what it would be like to coach children that were not excited and eager to be there.

We dont play kwik cricket. Its all full on with coaching and games. From U'10s (at 1 school I am at) we have high expectations and kwik cricket or similar is no where to be seen.

It must be difficult to get kids enthused if they are not excited. At one of the schools I am at, cricket is a compulsary sport that all boys must play. At a young age it becomes a way they define themselves and a way to express themselves amongst their peers.

Sorry i cant really help.

If I only just posted the above post, please wait 5 mins before replying as there is bound to be edits

Good to know things have been going well. I had the most horrendous maths lesson with Year 3 today so it's nice to see that I still have some clue how to do something...

As for Kwik, it all depends on your area and your schools.

Speaking from a state sector perspective, you do not have the time, space or resources for 'proper' cricket at junior schools. To remove hard-ball-fear takes time and you need to use it for a reasonable amount of time with a low adult:child ratio to repair the inevitable crying moments. Kwik avoids this, and also avoids the cost and maintenance that is full whack kit. It also keeps more children involved in more of the game for a longer extent - proper cricket can easily end up being played 5-a-side with six fielding and batting in the tail. If you're one of those six, you're less likely to keep playing.

I can't really speak for whether it's boosted childrens' interest in cricket - I think last summer's Ashes has had a phenomenal impact on join-up to cricket clubs. Drawing the football and rugby analogy on, neither sport is played with 'adult' rules until secondary school age: mini-soccer and tag rugby, so it's correspondingly illogical to suggest that cricket ought to be played in the same way by 9 year olds as 29 year olds.

Saying that, cricket's different in that it has the skill of innings-building and pressure-building which exist in the long-form but not the short-form, and so obviously if children are capable, then they should be playing hardball 11-a-side in a club side as soon as possible.

Dunno what that established. It's more a tired Friday-evening thought stream than owt else...